Solve It With Salad

Partnership between iQ Food Co, The New Farm and 100km Foods

Regenerative agriculture. A term that holds a world of possibilities for addressing climate change.

We’ve talked about this before with Gillian Flies from The New Farm, one of our first farm partners to transition their farm to using regenerative agriculture methods of land management. We encourage you to read the full piece here. But the gist of it is: regenerative agriculture is a land management system that goes beyond operating at carbon zero and, instead, works to capture carbon in the soil, making it a carbon negative operation. Carbon gets sucked back into the soil, and we reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

This is really good news for the planet. As Gillian has pointed out, the potential regenerative agriculture holds to help combat climate change can be replicated the world over. Many farmers are already positioned to transition towards using these farming practices, and Gillian is hard at work educating other farmers in the Ontario region on just how to go about this.

But now, let’s talk about the other side of the equation.

What can restaurants and retailers do?

As it turns out, restaurants, and the Chefs who lead them, can do a lot. A critical way that restaurants and retailers can support regenerative agriculture is by putting those products on their menus and in their storefronts. And since restaurants and retailers have hundreds of customers a day, it’s also an amazing opportunity to educate and create awareness around this innovative method of farming.

Christine Flynn is the Executive Chef of iQ Food Co. iQ is a Toronto-based group of restaurants and healthy takeout that put sustainability and seasonality at the heart of their decision making. They are long-time supporters of the work that The New Farm is doing. This week marks the launch of something very special: Solve it With Salad, a partnership between iQ Foods, The New Farm, and 100km Foods. The New Farm’s organic, regenerative (and REALLY tasty) greens take front row for their summer menu. And they give consumers a choice: they have a suggested menu price that encourages diners to fully support regenerative agriculture!

The Solve it with Salad initiative gives a choice to individuals to make a difference with their dollars in a direct way. 100km Foods very carefully source identifies every product, and we go pick up at The New Farm ourselves. We deliver these greens to the iQ Foods locations the next day, so be assured of two things: they are SUPER fresh (hand harvested only 24hrs before!) and guaranteed regenerative.

Chef Christine tells us, “Our hope is that our guests support us in supporting the New Farm, and that we can share our successful model of farmer – distributor – retailer and have it replicated not just nationally but globally.”

This initiative is the start of something new. We can begin with these smaller, every-day choices as individuals about the kind of agriculture and distribution model we support. Because, let’s not forget: thousands of individual choices add up to make a very meaningful impact!

A huge thank you to Christine Flynn for the information and photos! Photograper for the shoot: Brilynn Ferguson.